understand how much further we have to go. we are in a space right now with the soul of our democracy as americans is up for grabs. when you talk about what it s to be black america today, we have lawmakers who are playing politics without humanity. when you think about dr. king s legacy and what it s to fight for equality and racial justice, it really drives home the point of let s stop playing around with this. let s stop playing the game of politics and legislation when you were talking about the true and real existence of incorporating our community and our people into the everyday fabric of what it s to be american. there is a lot to be encouraged about of what the supreme court is going to be doing with the cases we are looking at and where we are headed in urban center across america as crimes
this is part of it. does it become impossible to decide who gets reparations and who does not? and in that question, i think people think that reparations have to be in the form of payments, that people are going to get checks and whatever. it doesn t have to be. instead of paying it back, it can be paying it forward. do you understand what i m saying? oh, of course. you know, there would be no reason why you couldn t take every one of those massacres, r rosewood, wilmington, and if it s recent enough that you can i see no reason why there couldn t be reparations for those massacres given to people who survived those things. and you know what, don, if that happened to cover 78% of black america today, that would be great. but the thing is, it wouldn t. there s still a conversation we d have to have about black america in general. and as far as the eyebrows raised, i think we just need to realize that words aren t always applied to what they could apply
you begin with the understanding that there s ten times the wealth in white america than there is in black america today. you then have to address equity in education to make sure that you have the skills and the training and the chance to pursue your economic potential in this country. our plan calls for a doubling in the size of the community development financial institution s capacity to lend into communities of color, to small businesses, and particularly small businesses owned by women of color. we need to make sure that we have true criminal justice reform. that means ending a war on drugs that has become a war on people. ending the prohibition of marijuana. knowing our marijuana laws are disproportionately enforced against communities of color so we expunge the arrest records for those caught for possession of substances that are legal in most states in this country today. so in a country s very foundation is racist we need to meet this challenge in every
wealth in white america than there is in black america today. you then have to address equity in education to make sure that you have the skills and the training and the chance to pursue your economic potential in this country. our plan calls for a a doublingn the size of the community development financial institutions capacity to lend into communities of color with small businesses and particularly communities of businesses owned by women of color. we need to make sure we have true criminal justice reform, that means ending a war on drugs. ending marijuana laws so that we expunge the arrest records for those caught with possession of substances that are legal in most states in this country today. so in a country whose very foundation is racist, we need to meet this challenge in every single part of america, every single sector of our economy and
across the black america today. what do we do pragmatically on the ground that can move us into the modern world? now that we as blacks enjoy this levelrl of freedom? what will help us meet that challenge? nothing to say. they want to take us back to the old world. fly to sacremento. stand before another coffin of another black kid and basically, identify that event with slavery and seg gregation and so forth. and show himself to be humanely concerned with all of this. when of course he never appears in chicago or baltimore or st. louis or detroit. laura: doctor, it is a heartbreaker, but it is utterly predictable. to a lot of people it is utterly depressing but your insights are amazing. thank you so much for coming on tonight. we really, really appreciate it. and by the way, also something